New Forest: Nature's Paradise
Horsing around in nature’s paradise: birthday trip 1
I love Autumn especially October even before I get to my birthday at the end of it. This year we have two celebrations trips planned, to make up for the somewhat lacklustre 2020 version. The beloved ached to take me to Burley Manor ever since he had a staff outing there. It’s super pricey but worth it on a special occasion, just for the setting alone.
On route, we stopped off first in the mighty Oxford. Compared to our simple visit here last time, when it was really easy to park and there was just enough buzz to create a nice atmosphere and every masked person stuck to the one-way route markings, this was a nightmare. Most of our time was spent looking for an expensive parking space. We just wanted to pull in to pop to John Lewis (I have a long shopping list since we no longer have a branch in Birmingham and everything is always sold out online in these post-EU times). Sadly number one coffee choice Ole and Steen, in the excellent Westgate shopping centre is still closed. Hopefully, it is ‘still’ and it will be coming back.
There were a number of shops closed with a sign up ‘closed due to staff shortage’. I would be shocked to note this in a student town if I didn’t live in one myself and see the same thing in cafes and shops. Birmingham is Europe’s youngest city and we don’t have enough people to do the jobs, Thankfully, we managed to get a table at Oxford’s Society Cafe before we headed onwards to Hungerford, our first overnight stop.
Hungerford and the Three Swans Hotel were excellent. A lovely little town where I became obsessed with the quirky buildings, particularly the Bridge House with its little bridge from the main road to the front door. I’m so glad we booked to have a meal at the Three Swans upon arrival, which turned out to be wonderful. Hotel food sure has stepped up in the last generation.
A fantastic base to explore the North Wessex Downs, from Hungerford, we were able to drive to equally pretty Marlborough and Great Bedwyn before returning to the hotel for a nightcap. Everything about the area is calming. There are very few places in the UK where it’s fun to drive, especially in the congested south and I’d be happy to drive here myself - when I buy a car again (imminent). Even the warning that horses wander about on the road feels right. Just drive ultra slowly and be amazed at your good fortune to see these beautiful animals up close.
Heading on into the New Forest itself the next day, we stopped off at a beach, Calshot. This region really does have it all; beaches, villages, trains and of course, the parks.
Monkey World, the reason we came here is reserved for the last day. As part of our 10th-anniversary celebrations this year, I adopted RoRo, a lady orangutan. Our annual membership came as part of that and if you know me, there’s not a much better company for me than primates. Maybe dogs. I would have liked to visit on my actual birthday but that usually falls during half term so I leave it for the young families to enjoy. A fantastic day that involved us going for a little detour to Poole before heading home. From a chance encounter with a tweet, I learned that both Poole and Bournemouth are doing great things encouraging indie businesses to flourish where the dead department stores lie. Next time we visit nature’s paradise, we’ll pop across to Bournemouth.
